University Services: Information Technology
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University Services: Information Technology STATE OF IT REPORT - 2017 Overview of Table of Contents 4 US:IT 3 Welcome from CIO 4 Overview of US:IT Organizational Structure Support Services Annual Budget Capital Investments 8 Project Management and Updates 12 System Upgrades and Enhancements 14 Partnerships 15 Team Highlights: Information Security Office System Upgrades Advanced Computing Group & Enhancements 12 16 Scholarship and Development 17 Future Directions 15 Team Highlights US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 2 WELCOME From the Desk of the Chief Information Officer ello and welcome to the University Services:Information Technology division’s annual State of IT report. In this report, we hope to inform the University of Maine System community with an overview of the US:IT Organization, updates on major projects and service enhancements completed or undertaken this past year, partnerships facilitated and a vision of the future for the US:IT team. HOur division continues to strive to support the ‘One University’ concept by providing reliable, secure and robust technological solutions that enhance teaching and learning, create operational efficiencies and accommodate the business goals of each campus constituency. Information contained in this report was contributed by numerous staff within US:IT and the success metrics reported highlight the ongoing dedication and David Demers, Ph.D. commitment of the entire US:IT team to deliver exemplary customer service to each Chief Information Officer campus we support. In this report we also outline the collaborations, partnerships and activities we will continue to pursue in order to enhance the technology and information services landscape for the University of Maine system. It should also be noted that the past year was one of leadership transition for US:IT. Dick Thompson, who retired as CIO in September 2017, was the driving force behind the IT unification effort. This monumental task positioned US:IT to be on the leading edge for the University of Maine System to drive new efficiencies and realize savings in order to combat rising costs and shrinking budgetary allocations. Through his stewardship and leadership, US:IT emerged to serve as a model of success for other units to follow. I am grateful to Dick for his contributions and his strength in seeing this initiative through. It is my goal to continue to build upon this success. To do so will require continued collaboration and teamwork throughout the division as well as with the students, faculty and staff we serve on each campus. I truly look forward to working together as a group to achieve this goal. US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 3 OVERVIEW OF US:IT Structure, Leadership and Staffing he University Services: Information Technology division consists of more than 200 US:IT employees organized into the following functional areas: • Support Services • Classroom Technology • End User Technology T• Information Security • Enterprise Computing and Applications • Campus Academic and Business Solutions • Web Technologies • Network Services • Data Center Operations • Advanced Computing Group • Project Management • Data Analytics and Reporting Technology Services In addition, each campus in the University of Maine System has a designated Campus Information Technology Officer as well as a Campus Operations Manager. These roles are charged with providing each campus with strategic and operational level IT support through collaboration and engagement. A full organizational chart for US:IT is now available at: www.maine.edu/its/ US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 4 OVERVIEW OF US:IT Support Services he University Services:Information Technology division supports greater than 100 unique services At this time there are 85 public-facing services in the catalog across a dozen categories: with numerous more internal to IT. The project will continue • Accounts, Access, & Passwords to be refined with documentation linked to services and incident response tracking as the product matures. From • Business Applications September through November 2017, the service catalog had T • Computers, Hardware, & Printing 8,950 views from across all the campuses and the intensity • E-mail, Calendaring, & Listserv of visits has been climbing as the university community becomes more familiar with the facility. • Educational Tools, Online Learning, & Classroom Technology The service catalog is available at https://itservices.maine.edu • Help & Training • Networks, Telephones, & Communications • Project Management, & Consulting • Safety & Security • Servers, Backup, & Monitoring • Software & Applications • Web Development & Hosting In 2016, US:IT formed a cross-disciplinary team entitled IT Portfolio Management chaired by Kim Tran, Campus IT Officer for USM. One of the goals for this group was the US:IT Service Catalog publication of a shared UMS Service Catalog. A service catalog is an industry standard offering that provides the # Public Services client community a menu of services offered, self-service offerings, links to documentation and training, and contact 85 information. In summer of 2017, this group released the # Service Catalog Views very first Service Catalog for IT in the University of Maine System. Beyond providing customer-oriented access to IT (Sep’17-Nov’17) Services, it also supports management of IT’s portfolio of service as well as identification of duplicative services. 8,950 US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 5 Help Desk ability for issues to be resolved upon first Monthly Support Desk Call Volume For 2017 contact. At present, Help Desk Calls roughly 90% of calls are 6000 resolved immediately Total # Calls in 2017 (Figure B). 4000 When tickets are unable to be resolved upon 51,160 2000 first contact, speed of resolution is an area % Answered by 0 where US:IT must continue to focus. Students With an increase in call volume in August Answered by Student Answered by Staff in particular, the fall 59.9% FIGURE A semester starts with a backlog of work before % Calls Resolved on he US:IT operates multiple, integrated help classes begin (Figure desks across all the campuses and some C). Various IT units will First Contact additional locations. Telephones are managed need to shift vacations such that the local help desk will receive the to earlier times in the call first and if nobody is available, the client summer to ensure 90% can opt to reach assistance from another availability for an earlier location. The change to campus-first answering was made in peak period. Tsummer of 2016 in response campus feedback about remote assistance not being as reliable. With the current model, Ticket Ages approximately 93% of the total volume of 51,160 calls were 1000 answered locally over the past calendar year. 900 800 Student labor plays an integral part of the IT Support Services 700 600 operation. In 2017, roughly 60% of calls placed to the IT 500 Help Desk were handled by student workers (Figure A). 400 Students, primarily located at UM, UMF and USM, play a 300 200 significant role in after hours and weekend support as well. 100 0 A key metric for a robust Help Desk operation is the percentage of calls resolved on first contact. Training of support staff and the introduction of a statewide, real-time Less than 1 week 1 week or older 2 weeks or older chat tool amongst support staff have steadily increased the 3 weeks or older 4 weeks or older FIGURE C Closed on 1st Contact Sep 2015-Nov 2017 100.00% Through the initial State of IT report, seven new positions were created within IT Support Services. The purpose 90.00% of these positions was to enhance quality of service and 80.00% coverage. All of these positions are filled with six (6) at 70.00% campuses and one (1) Analyst position charged with tracking effectiveness, process improvement, creating documentation 60.00% and ensuring we are leveraging staff seamlessly from one 50.00% campus to another. The result of these positions has resulted 40.00% in extended support desk hours by adding second shift regular staffing to oversee existing student labor and making phone support available to all the campuses on weekends and until FIGURE B 9:00 PM during the week. This totals approximately twenty US:IT STATE OF IT REPORT 2017 6 four additional hours per week of service desk availability. As a trial, the help desk was made available 24x7 during The additional staff have also stabilized gaps where we the first two weeks of the spring semester of 2017. This have frequent turnover in entry-level positions, areas where was heavily advertised at all the campuses and yielded only staffing is limited, and illness and vacation has previously six calls over the entire period after midnight and minimal had a profound impact. Staff are regularly deployed to volume between 9:00 PM and 12:00 AM. The experiment assist at other campuses as needed. These new staff have suggested the demand does not align with cost and the also provided assistance in moving legacy services to the strategy will be re-evaluated. appropriate enterprise teams and have facilitated support for computer desktop initiatives at the campus level. Annual Budget he US:IT budget is comprised of compensation and benefits for US:IT employees, non- compensation annual expenses and annual revenue offsets. The consolidated US:IT budget is almost entirely recharge-based, with the rational cost for services and support charged back to individual University of Maine System campuses. This arrangement Tprovides a cost-effective model for delivering a blend of campus-specific and shared IT services for each member campus; this model is also leveraged by other UMS shared services organizations, including human resources, strategic FIGURE D procurement, general counsel, internal audit and finance. Since 2017, the US:IT budget has experienced modest growth to keep pace with contractually-mandated salary and annual licensing increases. As shown in Figure (D), the FY18 budget increased by a total of 5.1% to $23.739M over the FY17 budget ($22.580M).